Saturday, December 6, 2008

Woodpeckers

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Snow Accumulating on Canada Geese

We are back in New Jersey after visiting our children in California. We also visited a few bird watching areas in Southern California. We did see a few Canada geese when we were there. However, we had to come back to New Jersey to see a lake with ice on it and snow accumulating on the Canada Geese. Perhaps it's a good day to have a down blanket.

Sandbar at San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary: Pelicans and Cormorants

Pelicans and Cormorants sharing a sandbar at San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary. While we were taking this, a bobcat walked by us with a duck its in mouth. We were too surprised to get any pictures, except one of the bushes that it walked under.

Green-winged Teal from San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary

Chris saw this photo of a Green-winged Teal on the computer and couldn't believe we didn't post it. Well, we took over 2000 pictures in 2 days so we didn't post them all. If you could hear her rave, you would know why we are posting it now- such a handsome duck.

Jersey Birding Links

Birds at the Bird feeders

About us

For those of you visiting this site who do not know us, we thought we would offer a brief explanation of how it all happened. We have lived in several different states, including Connecticut, New Hampshire, California, Virginia, and New Jersey. The house we rented sits right on a small lake, so we initially saw lots of geese and some mallards, rather mundane yet enjoyable. There seemed to also be an abundance of woodpeckers, and we started putting suet out for them. Mike frequently gets up early, and while working from his desk in the window this past fall, he noticed something other than geese on the lake. At first it started with a Pied-billed grebe, and then we also saw briefly a Wood Duck or two, a few Ring-necked ducks, Bufflhead, and then the gorgeous Hooded Mergansers. Well, we’ve fed birds before at other homes, but we’ve never lived on water, and we were especially fascinated by the beauty of the Hooded Mergansers. We have two grown daughters and family sprinkled around the US, and we were constantly e-mailing them pictures of the birds and ducks, so we decided it would just be easier to put them up on the web to share. We are not real die-hard birders, and we have no formal photography training. We’re just a couple who is enjoying the birds and waterfowl of their own backyard and wanted to share them. So, you may find more professional pictures somewhere else, but we hope you enjoy our site as well.

We moved back to California in June 2012, and we've started a new blog, California Birds. Here are our most recent California photos.